The monthly Greensboro City Council business meeting is Tuesday, Aug. 17 at 5:30 p.m.

After gradually relaxing the COVID-19 related restrictions, in July the City Council allowed a limited number of people to attend the meetings in the council chamber.  However, now the restrictions are back and this meeting and council meetings for the foreseeable future will all be virtual.

There are no speakers from the floor at the business meetings but the public is allowed to comment virtually on agenda items.

The $135 million bond package is on the agenda for a public hearing with the notation, “Staff request postponement of this item to the regular meeting of Council on August 31 to allow for proper advertising.”

It states, “regular meeting of Council on August 31,” but there is no meeting on August 31 on the City Council meeting calendar and it is highly irregular for the City Council to meet on the fourth Tuesday of the month.  The regular meetings are normally held on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.

Although it is not on the agenda, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that she expected to move forward with appointing the citizens redistricting committee at the Aug. 17 meeting.  Vaughan said that with the US Census Bureau having released the data needed for redistricting, the City Council needed to get started on the redistricting process as quickly as possible.

Vaughan also said that she planned to add two organizations representing the business community to the list of those being asked to appoint members to the citizens redistricting committee.

A rezoning request on the agenda that had considerable neighborhood opposition at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting is for 3205-3211 West Friendly Ave. from Residential Single Family-3 (R-3) to Planned Unit Development (PUD) with the condition that the 1.9 acre site be restricted to residential uses.  The property is at the corner of West Friendly Avenue and West Avondale Drive across the street from Friendly Shopping Center.

The neighborhood opposition was largely based on the belief that the development would exacerbate currently existing storm water issues in the area.

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 to rezone the property.